Most immigrants settled in Manhattan for many years until the late 1970s when they started to migrate to Jackson Heights, a middle-class neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, that has good housing, schools and churches.

[6] By the early 1990s, many Colombians left the metropolitan centers and settled in the suburbs to escape crime and high product prices in the city.

Colombian communities grew significantly in places such as Stamford, Union City and Englewood, New Jersey, Jacksonville, Florida (which attracted a growing number of people from Miami), and Skokie, Evanston, Arlington Heights and Park Ridge.

Indeed, the Colombian presence in the United States was not recognized officially until 1960, when the U.S. Census began to specify the country of origin for South Americans (Migration Policy Institute, 2015)."

[6] First Wave: After World War I, many Colombians immigrated to the United States in order to complete their education there, studying at the universities of the country.

From the 1990s, along with the ensuing turmoil over a political assassination in 1989, the number of Colombians admitted to the United States tripled, representing the largest numbers of immigrants from a South American country (Carvajal, 2017; Migration Policy Institute, 2015)" Since the 1980s, many Colombians fled their urban cities to migrate to suburban areas in states like New Jersey and Connecticut, as their socioeconomic status improved.

The largest Colombian community lives in the South Florida area (Doral, Kendall, Weston, and Country Club) and Jackson Heights in Queens County, New York City.

[6] In New York City, a large Colombian community thrives and continues to expand in size since the wave of immigration began in the 1970s.

Jackson Heights in Queens County was heavily Colombian during the 1980s, but other immigrant groups have settled in the area, notably Ecuadoreans and Mexicans.

[6] The largest populations of Colombians are situated in the following metropolitan areas (Source: 2023 estimate):[10] The top 25 U.S. communities with the most residents born in Colombia are (2024):[11]